Assessing the Long-term Impact of Microcredit on Rural Poverty: Does the Timing and Length of Participation Matter?

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the long-term impact of microfinance institution (MFI) credit by overcoming heterogeneities across periodical participant pools. The focus of the paper is whether and how differences in the timing of membership (e.g. early versus late) impacts overall livelihoods, particularly in the face of economic distresses such as droughts.